As Britons remember the dark days of the German blitz on London on the 70th anniversary of the commencement of the bombing raids that changed the London landscape and terrified the populace for months, we recall some of the earliest Sikh families living in London at the time. Like every other London family these pioneer migrants took shelter in underground stations, the crypts of churches and in improvised shelters.

In this photograph from the Imperial War Museum a Sikh family takes shelter in a crypt in Christ Church Spitalfields, East London, during the blitz of 1944. The East End has always had a thriving Indian community since the 1930’s. Most were employed on the East India Docks and then found work as traders and peddlers in and around London.

In 1854, Duleep Singh, the tragic scion of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s deposed family, was the first Sikh to settle down in England. The Sikhs who followed him into Britain, however, were of more modest means. From the 1920s, a few Bhatra Sikhs from the western Punjab districts of Lahore and Sialkot arrived and began to make their appearance as door-to-door peddlers and traders. Some Sikh students who came to pursue their higher education joined them.

The first gurdwara or Sikh place of worship in the United Kingdom was established in 1911 at the initiative of a few Sikh students who persuaded Maharaja Bhupindar Singh of Patiala to donate a considerable sum of money to open a gurdwara in Putney, South London. Two years later the gurdwara was moved to 79 Sinclair Road, Shepherd Bush, London, and was the only one in the country for many years to follow. There are currently over 200 Sikh gurdwaras in the UK today with almost a quarter located within the Greater London area.

The gurdwara became an extremely importance site for the very early Sikh immigrants. Living where there was work, the gurdwara became an immediate and vital centre of social interaction as well as a place of spiritual reflection. Immigrants, Sikh and Hindu alike, used the address of 79 Sinclair Road as their first mailing address and domicile as they entered Great Britain often after enduring a gruelling ten-week journey by steamer from India or Africa. In doing so it provided shelter and stability. Many thousands of Sikh immigrants to the UK who settled in London and the Midlands from the 1930s onward can trace their arrival to this site either directly or indirectly.

The site became a critical part of the lifecycle rituals of this early Community, hosting their marriages, birth and funerary ceremonies. In an otherwise hostile London, 79 Sinclair Road in one way or another was a safe haven for the rapidly growing Sikh community.

By the 1960s, when Britain began to actively encourage immigration—specifically from Punjab with the introduction of the voucher system—the house became far too small for the now burgeoning community. In 1967 building work was started on a new site in Queensdale Road, Shepherds Bush, despite the protests from the local council. In spite of all the obstacles, the site was completed. The old site at 79 Sinclair Road was sold to augment the building fund. Since then it has remained in private hands.

Interesting. Didn’t realise that sikhs had settled that early! I was thinking early 60′s. Could they speak the language well? And how did the english take to them? How many families were here-population? thanks

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